Friday, 12 April 2013

Spring has Sprung & Minor Tweaks

Before monsoon season hit, we were able to get a few things done outside in preparation for the patio, and it was pretty evident that spring had sprung. There were adorable little shoots popping up all over the place, and while I am by no means a gardener, I certainly can get excited about little signs of life growing from the gross, dead looking earth. A number of the bulbs and plants we planted last year in the front garden were coming up.

Aww, look at that cute little sedum guy. Still have to trim the dead stuff...have to wait for it to stop raining for more than five minutes though, which clearly doesn't look like it's going to happen.

No clue what these little sprouts are...how I labeled things was stick a fork in the ground and trust that my elephant memory would do the rest. Alas, I can't even remember anything we planted in the fall (other than tulips haha)

Speaking of the tulips. The random friends growing in the backyard get more sun so they were a little more advanced. The older teenage siblings if you will.

Those tulips and this (hyacynth I believe) were growing where the myrtle was last year, so I'm not sure how long they were there, if maybe we just never saw them through the myrtle jungle.

Or perhaps it was those dastardly squirrels thinking that when I told them to "stay the *@#$ away from my bulbs" I actually meant, "take what you'd like, and disperse at your leisure". Either way, pretty colours should be on their way.

On a completely unrelated note. I thought I'd share the progress made on some dining room features. Remember Octa, the octopus chandelier?

Well, she got a bit of a makeover...

Woot! She doesn't even look like the same Octa, eh? We're not 100% sure if she'll stay the glossy white, or if she'll change to a matte black, depends how nicely she plays with all the other pieces in the room. Her shades have jumped ship and she'll just sport a fun round filament bulb.
The other update came in the form of some butt comfort. Here's what our dining chairs looked like before.

Brown with a pink velvety seat cushion. Now, there was nothing particularly wrong with the wood tone, it just didn't really go with the rest of the wood tones that are going to be in the room, we were going to have to re-stain them anyway, so since they needed to be sanded down regardless I decided to go with that I really wanted. And the best part is, my Nana wasn't even really upset that I decided to paint them. Thumbs up for previous owners approval.

Cool lines eh? (please disregard all the crap in the background, judging by the patio furniture I'd say this picture was taking about September/October haha)

Wabam! Looky looky...and this is only with primer, haven't even given them their final coats yet, then they'll look all glossy and beautiful.

And a detail shot of the new bum padding.

I love them. Jason thinks they look pretty good too. Not too bad for $7 a chair.